Dancing with the Stars 2009 on ABC

Dancing with the Stars is a reality show airing on American Broadcasting Company in the United States. The show is based on the United Kingdom BBC Television series Strictly Come Dancing and is part of BBC Worldwide's international Dancing with the Stars franchise.

The eighth season premiered on March 9, 2009. The show has been picked up for a ninth season by ABC.

You’ve been spending more quality time with Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, Shawn Johnson and Gilles Marini than with members of your own family. But after weeks of your undivided attention, it’s over: "Dancing with the Stars" had its season finale Tuesday night, and American Idol wrapped up Wednesday.

If you feel like you’re losing your best friend - and maybe even experiencing withdrawal - you’re far from alone.

“I hear it all the time from my patients: 'how am I supposed to get through the summer without my favorite TV show?'” says Dr. Michael Silverman, assistant professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “It’s potentially a withdrawal. Not like cocaine, but neurologically it is along the same lines.”

Watching shows like "DWTS" and "Idol" brings a person pleasure and distraction, just like drugs, he says. “When you think about the reward and pleasure areas of the brain, a TV show we like stimulates the same area of the brain,” Silverman explains. “Drugs are an escape from reality and that’s why people take them. Television is classically an escape from reality, too. When that means of escape goes away, you either have to confront what you are trying to avoid or escape, or else find something else to do.”